Ashutosh Goswami almost got away with killing his aunt after police were left puzzled about the identity of the killer.

Goswami left no clues and his victim was the only witness - or as he thought.

But private eye parrot Heera, nicknamed Hercule, was also in the house at the time and it was up to him to help solve the case.

In one of India's strangest murder mysteries, victim Neela Sharma's widower Vijay Sharma read out a list of names to Hercule - including Goswami's.

Like a true detective, the parrot waited for his time to reveal all and reportedly squawked: "Usne maara, usne maara" - ‘He’s the killer, he’s the killer.’

“He’s the killer, he’s the killer.”

Hercule the parrot

Talking to the Telegraph, Mr Sharma said: “The police told us that the murderer is someone close and known to the family as there was a friendly entry into the house.

“The parrot always used to be with my wife and I was sure he had witnessed the murder.

"It was unbelievable and to satisfy ourselves whether the police were going in the right direction we called out the names of all the suspects to our parrot.

"Surprisingly he screamed and made unusual noises whenever my nephew’s name came up.

"He confessed to the police."

MURDER: The incident happened in Agra, near New Delhi [GOOGLE]

The editor of a Hindi daily newspaper admitted that Hercule had been surprisingly quiet when Goswami earlier in the day which made him call the authorities.

On interrogation, Goswami confessed to the murder of Neela Sharma and said he and a friend killed her during the robbery of the house.

Shalabh Mathur., an Agra Police spokesman, reportedly added: "He admitted he had also killed the dog, thinking it could be used in an identity parade against him, but had not thought about killing the parrot which had been silent in its cage."